A few more puppy problems...

I've had my little girl for nearly 4 weeks. We are still having the peeing problems although its only once or twice a day in the house and we have actually been whole days with no mistakes

My newest problems are these. For the last two days she barely eaten a thing. I am feeding the same food as i have done since day one. I giving her breakfast, lunch and dinner (obviously replacing old stuff each time), but shes not interested.

Second issue is biting. I KNOW puppies bite, but this is everything and ALL the time. I have read that if she does this that you look into their eyes and say a firm NO and then carry on with what you are doing, ignoring her. Unfortunately, she thinks its a game.

Third problem. The hover. Oh my goodness, she goes insane. Barking, biting, jumping around, doing commando rolls, jumping up at me. Its a nightmare.

Lastly, walking on the lead. She doesn't walk. Its more like being dragged along the path. She hates people, cars, bikes and other dogs. She just sits there and doesn't move apart from shaking, alot. Any good ideas there please?

When she bites say a firm no, and then give her something she can bite.....then praise and treat when she is biting the correct object.

Well done on the toilet training...sounds like it is going well.

If it was me I would be looking for some puppy classses. they will go through all this stuff with you plus she gets to learn to mix with other pups.

hiya with the biting, i started off saying 'no' but i foudn a diff way, i say 'no'! then give him my 'mean mummy' look!
i show him whatever he bites e.g. my hand/something his not allowed and say 'no' again, then i get his fav toy and say 'yes!' then we he starts playing i tell him thta his good!

he stopped biting literally instantly, he bites my boyf but not me!

at first he wouldnt walk outside he was really frightened and i was dragging him, but then we took him over the park and he walked right away!

now he walks all the time!

try walking him round the house and garden to get used to the lead let him drag it along the floor!

i let archie get used to the hoover, i held him & had it on, then he was on the bed and i put it on, i did the same thing when he was on the floor, a loud 'no' then gave him something to play with and a 'yes' his not bothered with it at all now!

good luck!

Hello

I am so glad the toilet training has finially turned that corner! I have been thinking of you! I am also finding Honey is biting and chewing everything. I can just say, we make sure there is always something she can chew around!

These puppies....!!!

Take care

Jo X

quite a few issues there...
i would recommend taking your pup to classes as all of the problems should be covered and it will give you step by step advice that the trainer should be able to show you how to do.

food: keep doing what your doing. put the food down, give her 20 mins and if she doesnt eat, pick it up until next meal time. Make sure theres no treats inbetween meals. she should start eating again soon. unless she is unwell.

Biting: any attention is good attention for a puppy so i would try not to make eye contact or speak to her when she is doing the wrong thing. Best way ive found to stop play biting is to tether your dog with the lead, to something when you play with her. Play with her with a toy, smiling and praising her as she takes the toy in her mouth. If her teeth go onto your hands, you can quickly and effectively remove yourself from the game by taking a couple of steps back. Stop smiling, talking or looking at the dog and simply fold your arms to show you are displeased. Give her a few seconds, then go back into range and try again. she will very quickly learn that biting gets all attention removed completely. it also means she cant then get her own attention by biting at your sleeves or ankles!
Theres so many different methods out there u just need to find what works for you.
I hear rubbing whisky on your hands and arms can help! and at least if it doesnt u get to drink the whisky!! lol.

hoover: does she react when the hoover is just out but not on? Try bring the hoover out regularly without turning it on to get her used to it being around.
I used to have a huge problem with my staffie attacking the hoover, but once i figured out how to solve it i stopped it all in about 5 minutes.
What i did was turned the hoover on, and BEFORE she went skitzo, so just the eyeballing part before they go into attack mode, i would use a previously conditioned 'ah ah' and stopped moving the hoover at same time and turned off. Plenty of praise when being calm, but strict 'ah ah' when u see the signs to starting to be silly. No use if you have missed the opportunity because once they have started barking or being skitzy its too late. i hope that made sense?

walk: when out on a walk make sure you arent reacting to her behaviour or to the enviroment. so try not to lure along with food or comfort her as you will only be reassuring her response and telling her thats the correct way to respond. u need to adopt a laid back approach to the whole thing and just say ' oh dont be silly' and keep walking. it would be ideal for u to get the help of a good trainer to get her past the fearfulness.

Just one thought on the biting - if it is everything and anything at the moment is there a chance that she is teething (sorry, can't remember how old she is?)

If so, you must let her chew something (though evidently not you!).

Hali I think the puppy is 12 weeks ish ? so yes she will be teething for some time to come and needs lots of 'safe' chewing aids ...
Bluebell your have had some excellent advice here, may I just add a little....

Biting is normal behaviour in puppies, if a puppy doesn't bite there is something wrong with it . Puppies bite for a number of reasons, to explore the world around them/during play/and when teething. Teething puppies need lots of safe things to chew just as a teething baby does (nylabones are goodalso special bones from the pet shop/a carrot) .

The biting and nipping of your family which you describe is 'play biting' .Play biting is best curbed and channelled in the right direction when the puppy is small, he should be encouraged to bite ever more gently until no pressure is exerted at all . The best way to do this is to teach bite inhibition so that as the puppy grows up and develops powerful jaws, should he bite for any reason (like if he is in in pain/at the vets being treated /gets accidentally hurt) he will have been taught never to sink his teeth into human skin.
Bite inhibition, learning to developer a 'soft mouth' is one of the most important lessons you can teach your puppy.


Teaching a puppy bite inhibition takes time and patience and won't be achieved in just a few days also everyone in the household needs to adopt the same approach.

Link to teaching bite inhibition ..click here

Regarding the hoover, as Jenny says getting your puppy used to it gradually is a good thing leaving it around so the puppy gets used to seeing it about and playing with the puppy /giving lots of praise once it is around/turned on. It is also best never to let a small puppy think it is being 'chased' by the hoover and to begin with when using it in the puppy's presence I always put myself between the puppy and the hoover so that it may feel less threatened . Millie 7 months old) has learnt to like the hoover and knows it isn't a threat.

I understand about the potty training, bitting an nipping issues, and the HOOVER.
We have a 3 1/2 month od bloodhound and a 6 month old bloodhound. Potty training, we make sure that even if they don't go to the door, that we take them outside atleast once an hour.
Bitting--we have 2 kongs available to give to them after there is a firm NO, and then they can chew on that and then they are a good boy or girl.
HOOVER--I also have my vaccum sitting in plain site. Although all it takes is one of them going bizerk and then they both are. Still working on that myself.
Lead---Our pup's drag a nylon lead around all the time, the only time they do not have them on is when they go to bed at night in their kennels. As for the walking on a lead, I agree with any attention paid for bad behavior, such as giving in, or babying the pup, just encourages this. Our 3 1/2 month old still has a problem leaving the yard, but we work on her daily crossing the road and coming back. She is getting better. Consistency and diligence is the only thing that we have learned helps with any of these issues. Good luck and wish us luck with our clan also.

Hi Bluebell,

We've had our Beagle pup for just a little longer than you've had yours. I can relate to the hunger strike and biting problem as we had both. Both are pretty much resolved now. We also had a problem with her pulling on the lead recently, but we're making progress with that too. Now this is our first pup, so bear that in mind before following any of my advise!

The biting (which absolutely was NOT aggression) didn't respond to a firm 'no' or to saying 'ouch'. She's a confident, playful little pup and both simply were taken as "oh goodie - the game's getting more exciting". Our trainer told us to try a bottle with coins in it and to bang it hard on the floor to distract her. That worked a couple of times and then the bottle became part of the game. The solution that worked for us was to stop playing with her when she did it. Just walk away. It might not seem to work at first, but after a few days ours got the message.

With eating just stand firm and let her no you mean business. Ours started playing up after a little tummy bug. I was worried and every time she wouldn't eat I'd try and find something more tasty to coax her. Within a couple of days she refused anything but the best of home cooked human food! The vet advised to withdraw ALL treats and put her kibble down for 10 minutes at meal times until she ate it. She promised me she would eat within 4 days and that it wouldn't do the pup any harm. Our pup caved in on day 3. She'll still try it on for the occasional meal but our response is always the same - no training treats if she doesn't eat her meals.

Ours took to walking to heel perfectly in the beginning, but after developing her sense of smell started to put her nose to the ground and pull. We've pretty much got that fixed. We started out with a wooden spoon smeared with peanut butter or cream cheese. Just walk with the spoon in front of her nose and she should trot along beside you happily licking away.



When she's got the hang of that, start using the 'heel' command, and eventually progress to just giving her the odd treat to keep her interest. Within a matter of days ours went from nose down and pulling constantly, to trotting along beside us WITHOUT the lead in response to the 'heel' command. The only problem we have now is she'll jump up from time to time to let us know she wants another treat!

Now I should finish by saying that our pup is EXTREMELY confident and outgoing. So what works for her might not work for a nervous pup.